Recovering Kvitova feels love from fans
• A year ago Petra Kvitova was recovering from a knife attack at her home in the Czech Republic, unsure if she’d ever play tennis again.
Any wonder that on her return to the Australian Open — a tournament she missed last year because of the December 2016 attack — that a 6- 3, 4- 6, 10- 8 first- round loss to Andrea Petkovic didn’t really bother her in the overall scheme of things.
At the end of their match on Tuesday at Show Court 2, Kvitova was in tears, but not for any bad reason.
“I was able to play anyway,” said Kvitova, a twotime Wimbledon champion. “I felt support during the match. It made me cry when I left the court, when I heard those people supporting me. So it was great.”
What wasn’t so great was some of the errors she made when so close to clinching a win. Instead Petkovic evened their lengthy head- to- head career matches at 5-al
Kvitova, the 27 th- seeded player here this year, doublefaulted on a match point, two points after hitting a half-court volley into the net. She had earlier saved three match points in the 10th game of the final set.
“Unfortunately it was me who lost,” she said. “I was really fighting in the second set when I broke her. In the third set, I served for a few match points, then I had like twice to serve it out.”
Before the tournament, Kvitova told Australia’s Players Voice of the difficulties she had recovering from the surgery on her left playing hand. And how it became much more difficult when the new season began with the first Grand Slam in Melbourne last year.
“It was a deeper feeling than I thought it would be. I missed the Australian Open last year. I missed Australia,” she wrote, adding she still suffers flashbacks of the attack.
She wouldn’t return playing until the French Open, losing in the second round. She later won a title at a grass- court tournament in England and reached the U.S. Open quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., advanced to t he second round of the tournament with a 6- 3, 7- 6 ( 5) win over France’s Oceane Dodin.
Bouchard will face topseeded Simona Halep next.
Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., joined Milos Raonic on the sidelines after losing his first round match in three sets to Karen Khachanov of Russia 7- 6 ( 3), 7- 6 (2), 6-4.